Formula for capital funding for Delaware’s charter schools

1) All Delaware’s public schools which include traditional, voctech and charter schools must be funded the way votech schools are! The state legislators set the tax-rate for for each votech districts. No referendums are required!

2) Because charter schools are “corporations”, their properties are not state owned as traditional and votech schools are. A charter school corporation can dissolve itself and reorganize as a private school or a business related organization. Sure I am crazy! :). But what will happen to the restate / equity if say Newark Charter School calls it quits? Legally who does the $$$$$$ belong to? So to any of you legislators thinking of finding a way to provide charter schools with capital funding you need to address my $$$ concern. One way would be, if a charter school closes or order closes the state has ownership in restate equal to any capital funding. And are first in line to collect.

Folks! When the taxpayer approve capital funding for our public schools we know at the end of the day that property belongs to the state aka the people!

Delaware charter schools know the rules of engagement when they submit a charter school application and that includes the capital funding issues. However, the agenda long ago was, lets establish the charter schools then come back unified demanding capital funding!!

One thing we need to do for all public schools that include charter schools is end all the state and federal “underfunded” mandates! End the overreach of the governor via his puppet-show called the Delaware Department of Education. Elected state board of education members and yes pay them!

One way to throw water on all the capital funding talk is YIKES allow virtual charter schools like OMG K12,Inc. “with” the stipulation all online teachers serving Delaware students live in Delaware and hold Delaware state teaching certificates and licenses.

You’d be surprised how well that can work. Learning by computer might be better than sitting in a class with 40 kids. I watched my kindergarten-age daughter teach herself to read on starfall.com. She also had all the other advantages in that the house is full of books and we read to her often. But the computer accelerated her reading, and now she’s way above grade level.

Of course, computer-based teaching should always be a supplement and not a replacement for human-based teaching. Now it will be funny to watch now many replies ignore the previous sentence.

As for Newark Charter, the best bet for entire New Castle County, is to take the property through eminent domain and transfer it to Christina School district and let them continue the school under a different name… I like the name “School of Rock”…

Transfer it to CSD and watch how fast it declines. If the district has shown anything, it has shown a repeating pattern of mismanagement and lack of educational vision.
School of Rock would then be appropriate because it would sink like a stone. How very good for all the students who are currently thriving there, huh?

The PC and Social justice defenders can’t sit still for rewarding those who aren’t academically or behaviorally disadvantaged. Their socialist influences are just too strong.

Mike
Spoken like a true class warfare re-distributionist. 1/3 of CSD is in alternative schools. Hardly a “select” few.

The decline would be a result of incompetent, union influenced and wasteful management, not student ability. So by your statement, you would rather divert taxpayer funds to the district where the funds would be less efficiently utilized AND student education would decline as a result of the waste. Makes complete sense to anyone who isn’t as interested in ALL student achievement and is much more focused on redistribution and transfer payments. Way to go Mike. You epitomize why our educational (and other governmental) system is in the circumstances it is in. Bloated, unfocused on the real task for ALL students, and financially conflicted.

Education is supposed to be educating, it cannot and will not EVER be able to fix the home lives of some students. This is the irrefutable fact that weighted funding is not the solution. Please provide actual (not theoretical educational utopian leanings) school proof that funding alone has corrected the social issues (and subsequent academic), pundits claim it is needed for. Please also provide proof that when the re-distributive methodologies are employed, ALL student performance improves. Generally speaking it does not.http://educationnext.org/misplaced-optimism-and-weighted-funding/

Wooaahh, touched a nerve there huh, Kavips? Good. Your defense of inefficient systems is duly noted. I’m not the one shielding and excluding funds from students under cover of “exclusion shell game’ like CSD and the other districts. Never mind they are denying students of the funding they are entitled to by law.
I’m not the one defaming families who choose to opt out. I simply want educational dollars spent on education, not on programs that claim success based feel good emotions. I shove nothing, you however shove your treasure trove of misguided beliefs that our taxes are a resource for redistribution. Never mind that you want your foot on the scale to direct who ‘deserves’ funding. Robin Hood you are not. ‘Robbin’ the responsible to pay the irresponsible, maybe.

Actually, thanks for caring, but sorry, no nerve touched. Just noticed a misprint on your part and corrected it for all others to see.

It is common, when people consider themselves to be in the ‘halves”, they tend to tightened their world into smaller and smaller circumferences and disenfranchise large numbers by placing them outside those boundaries the arbitrarily draw to separate those who matter from those who don’t.

Unlike them, wise people look at everything as a whole. Which readily explains our different views on this topic. A sliver of population doing well, and a majority not,… behooves a change. All understand your motives. You are trying to protect what you consider is yours… To the rest of us, we all recognize much of that should be going back to them… When you look at all economic data from 1965 till today, we own the argument.

The easiest way to solve it, is to tax the wealthy so much they scream.

“The decline would be a result of incompetent, union influenced and wasteful management, not student ability.”

Mitch, you are such an a$$… You fail to account for how what you call incompetent, union influence and wastefully managed institutions totally blow charter schools out of the water when comparing student results..

Here is the one FACT you can’t refute… ONLY 17% OF CHARTER SCHOOLS ACROSS THE USA WERE BETTER THAN THE NEIGHBORING SCHOOLS FROM WHICH THEY STOLE CHILDREN AND VALUABLE RESOURCES ….

It appears that what Charters need to have happen BASED STRICTLY ON THEIR RESULTS, is for them to also become” incompetent, union influenced and wastefully managed”… lol THEN AT LEAST THE KIDS WOULD BENEFIT! If you can take the microcosm of someone who rhymes with FLEECE, they’ve already got the incompetence and wastefully managed parts down… Now they only need to become union influenced and they too, may start gaining ground as have your “so called” incompetent public schools which all non-biased data show to TOTALLY BEAT CHARTER SCHOOLS ASS..

How dare you use my real name! Be sure to not accept any personally delivered letters.
So you have to go to a ‘National’ percentage to ignore the district failures in NCC? You don’t see the obvious plank in your eye?
What are the scholastic differences in NCC? In this area, our districts are doing a mediocre job at best. AND as I have repeatedly said, there would be no demand for charters if the local TPS’s were addressing the needs of their community.
If you consider the resources so valuable (and I don’t disagree, they are valuable), why are you OK spending them at schools that waste enormous amounts of the resources? 2-3x the cost for the buildings, 2-3x the staff, 1/2-1/3 the results. You’re not worried about all the kids benefits, just the socially justifiable ones.
How did a school that started in 6 (non state purchased) trailers get ‘results’ that explain why 25% of residents want their kids to go there? It wasn’t because of the union or prevailing wages was it and it wasn’t due to some elitist jello BS? The kids want to learn, the parents want to be engaged, and the staff want to teach (not babysit misbehaving children who ‘accidentally’ assault one another)

I’m confused at your statement. Because you have it backwards. District schools are the epitome of thriftiness, and charters are the suckers of valuable resources. Are you not aware of how terribly run they are?

You are trying to base an argument on a fiction it appears. first, is your misstatement that public schools are inefficient, and the second is that Charter schools perform….

Where do you get these facts having no basis? Don’t you know that far more of a percentage at every charter goes towards building costs than it does at public schools? Don’t you know that staffing is already too tight at public schools,, not bloated? Don’t you know Charters are more top heavy than public schools based on administration costs as a percentage?

Your myths come from the 90’s before charters existed… And which school are you referencing being started in 6 trailers? Pencader? That turned out nicely… and most of those parents put their children back in public school and found their children were several classes behind for graduation than those that stayed!

You live in an alternative universe, Let me explain it clearly. Charter schools take resources better used at public schools and squander them either on rent, salaries, or theft…

“So by your statement, you would rather divert taxpayer funds to the district where the funds would be less efficiently utilized AND student education would decline as a result of the waste. ” –M Ryder

Oh, since when did Christina District start charging its parents for field trips then billing the state and applying all that money to pay for its two new buildings for which they miscalculated the total amount the General Assembly would pay for them?

I think ALL EVIDENCE, shows mismanagement to lie at least 99.9% on Charters’ side… or are you someone who ignores facts to live it fairy godmother land…

If only you knew half of what you think you do when it comes to funding. And I suppose CSD’s multi-year history of cooking the books on their charter allocations is just sour grapes right? By my calculations they have illegally withheld minimally 5 million dollars from students under the guise of ‘they’ know how to use it better. Their stellar test results and Eagle scout behaviors speak for themselves right? Too bad it was illegal and screwed many students over but again, you’re not interested in all students, just the socially justifiable ones.

Sure… try to dodge that Newark Charter School is taking money from both parents and the state to pay for student activities so they can put it towards their two buildings the have to pay for…..

Why didn’t you comment on that instead of trying to sidestep the horrible, horrible management of Newark Charter School by diverting to some straw argument about Christina?… Let me set you straight, (as well as anyone else who may or may not read this).. THE CHRISTINA DISTRICT DID NOT MIS-ALLOCATE FUNDS FROM CHARTERS. ALL ALLOCATIONS ARE SOLELY DETERMINED BY THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. THESE DEFAMATION CLAIMS OF MISAPPROPRIATIONS WERE APPROVED BY MR. RODEL HIMSELF, BACK WHEN HE WAS SUPERINTENDENT… lol

“Makes complete sense to anyone who isn’t as interested in ALL student achievement and is much more focused on redistribution and transfer payments.” –M Ryder

Duh, M Ryder…. what part of ONLY 17% OF CHARTER SCHOOLS ACROSS THE USA WERE BETTER THAN THE NEIGHBORING SCHOOLS FROM WHICH THEY STOLE CHILDREN AND VALUABLE RESOURCES …. do you not understand…?

If you are going to blatantly lie to the public, at least do it with something that is not so easily disproved… you embarrass Delaware by being so incompetent in your misstatements… Even Carper does better.

“You epitomize why our educational (and other governmental) system is in the circumstances it is in. Bloated, unfocused on the real task for ALL students, and financially conflicted.” M Ryder

Oh. My. Goodness… Do you not read? The only systems across our whole society now awash in too much money, is Delaware’s Charter Schools organization…

I mean who else can build two buildings and get away with charging parents for field trips and then billing the state for those field trips costs and applying those moneys to pay for two buildings they built thinking the state would pay for, but didn’t?

“Incompetence” is owned by the Delaware Charter Network…. you have only look to someone whose name rhymes with FLEECE, to see it….

Again, if you only knew half of what you think you do on how educational funding is mandated. Please apply your keen intellect on why a district moves its administrative offices 20 miles away from the district proper. Please apply it to the building purchase and maintenance costs of a building that has remained empty for 10 years. Please apply it to how our districts never have enough money to maintain their buildings except to request a referendum when the buildings are near collapse due to malfeasance.

3 things not true in you comment above….
1) Christina Districts Headquarters are not 20 miles away from their district. Delaware is only 12 miles wide. 20 miles would put it in New Jersey.. YOUR FIRST STATEMENT IS: FALSE

2) Buildings remain empty?. If you are talking about the two schools in center city being used for offices, it doesn’t take a genius. Instead of renting office space, finances being scarce make it smarter to use a building you already own… Same reason Red Clay is no longer run out in a high rise office plaza off New Linden Hill Road, but one of their old schools as well… Duh…. smh

3) Districts never have enough money to run their buildings….. Well, if returned $20 million to Christina now being sucked out by charters, there would money to run their buildings… Again… duh…

The reason I’m answering you tit for tat is to show the whole world you don’t know what you are talking about… You may think you do, living in that bubble of yours, but when you put up your assertions and they stand next to real facts, you come off looking flat out silly… And when you look silly, that is good for the MAJORITY of Delaware’s students, not just an elite 2000…..

“Education is supposed to be educating, it cannot and will not EVER be able to fix the home lives of some students. This is the irrefutable fact that weighted funding is not the solution. “– M Ryder…..

Oh, my goodness… Pure elitism here… properly translated here is what M Ryder just said: EWWWW i don’t what to be seen with …………”THOSE PEOPLE”…. EWWWW, stopping asking me to take care of those people I’m raping for free…. (note: stealing money from 4 poor children to benefit one rich child is equivalent to rape).

Gosh what a stinker. Granted, an educational system working 7- 5 cannot stop a dad from bending his daughter over and raping her, but it can offer legal support to that girl the next day, it can offer legal protection to that girl for a day, it can offer the benefit of hope for that girl for the next day, and it can change that girl’s life forever for the better…

The equivalent to Ryder’s epitaph, is telling his family to stop spending money on gas for their car… WE ARE SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY ON GAS, DARN IT… JUST STOP BUYING GAS FOR OUR CARS.. I CAN’T BLOW MY MONEY AT THE RACETRACK BECAUSE YOU GUYS KEEP BUYING GAS… STOP BUYING GAS…

Silly point being that money needs to get spent where it is needed. Not where M. Ryder personally thinks it will do him the most good…

Selective improvement once again. Targeted help to lower achieving students helped raise their scores but did little to improve the performance of the rest of the student body.

And your second example promotes using the police force in the schools rather than remove the offending student influences. While lower violence in the halls is great, it does little for the teacher who has to contend with the disruptive disengaged students Jea doesn’t want disciplined. Yes, let’s use funding to make our schools mini ‘martial law’ environments backed up with police. That’s a fine use of educational dollars.

Hardly the sort of success stories needed for weighted funding justification and certainly doesn’t solve the social issues that create the problems for educators. So Fail and fail again but keep trying.

if you have ten students (representing the 100,000 in Delaware) and on a 4 point grade scale their scores line up like this…..

1 + 1 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = your school average is 2.2 …

Now use teachers aides in reading and math to help the disadvantaged students…. And they raised grades up two grade-points on average so let us make those ones into threes and see what we get, shall we? You’re going to love this….

So if you put that as a test scores it shows the entire school went from a 2.2 to a 3.4… Markell should give them a ribbon… THAT IS AWESOME… Now I know, you never learned about averages before, but the great thing about averages is that when you focus and bring the bottom up, the whole score improves! Isn’t that wonderful?

The same numbers can be used to show how Newark Charter weans those ones out and fills them with 3’s and says… Woo Hoo… We’re so smart, we’re so smart… They aren’t, they just replaced students who would have been 1’s with 3’s… If public schools were allowed to do that, and send their dregs to Charters, then we’d have a completely different scenario… Btw. This is all very old news. Where have you been hiding the last 25 years?

Oh, M… do you even read the links you post? What a riot you are and thanks for again proving to all readers how incompetent those who promote charters schools really are, and now competent those who say we need to eradicate charters forever from our state, actually turn out to be….

Duh… Here in the article you linked to…

“The reform envisioned is not so much about providing differential dollars based on student needs, but about changing who makes funding decisions. The supporters also importantly call for dollars to go directly to individual schools based on these categorizations of student needs, with individual budget decisions being made at the school level. The unstated goal is to bypass any decision making at the district level—where each group sees intractably bad political outcomes.”

Basically you called out the whole premise behind the charter movement as being an ineffective redistribution of income that does not benefit student improvement…

Ironically through this giant mistake made on your part, we finally agree on something…. CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE THE MOST INEFFICIENT WAYS OF GETTING INCOME DIRECTLY INVOLVED INTO THE TEACHING OF CHILDREN…

But then, it’s not really the “teaching of children” you are really worried about now, are you?… It is how to pay for those two expensive buildings that got built and now a charter is on the hook for…..

Missed again Kavips, the article calls out weighted funding which you have touted as a solution to disparities in education. Your mistake is that you still cannot come to grips with my argument that our schools are not providing what they are tasked with- Education. I have called out the districts for inefficiencies and lack of results and their response is to demand more money. I have never claimed all charters are equal nor beneficial. I have argued that funding by itself and weighted funding in particular, as the article points out, does little to improve the educational performance of students or schools.

The last statement in the article IS the point.

“Schools will not improve until there are greater incentives for improving student achievement. Redistributing funds across schools or increasing the funding to schools by themselves will not magically put us on this path.”

Charter Schools’ incentive is that they are attracting more students in NCC because of student achievement. TPS’s are not attracting students because they are NOT focused on all student achievement, instead they are focused on your selective social justice. You argue that if only the charters were closed and the kids were sent back to their respective feeder schools all would be corrected. False; it would provide a financial boost to the district but with no reason to address the problematic academics or environment, the schools’ academics would be as they were before. That’s how governmental communism and socialism works. Without incentives, the results are low.

So the reason you are here arguing about the 2nd smallest state’s charter schools with me instead of running a billion dollar software company, is because YOU lack incentive? Or the reason a child entering public schools with barely a 5000 word vocabulary can’t do as well as a child who enters with a 15,000 word vocabulary, is….. incentive, or lack thereof? The reason Olive Garden is going under, is because they didn’t have enough incentive all those years to run an excellent operation. The reason Dupont has fallen on hard times, is because they didn’t have enough incentive to succeed? The reason Wilmington Trust failed and had to be bought up by M & T, was because they didn’t have enough incentive to stay solvent? So the reason test scores dropped when the smarter balanced took over from the DCAS, was because students didn’t have enough incentive to score higher? So the reason a pothole on 95 is there for days is because the DOH does not have enough incentive to fix it when it happens?

No. other things control how and when things happen. Incentive is pretty close to the bottom of the basement…

Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it because they are exposed to a multiplicity of stimuli at the exact point in life where their brains are growing neurons, instead of being kept in a room for their own protection because their parent has to work two jobs just to pay for a roof and some paltry foon on the table? I wonder…. I wonder… Why would scores be higher for children of parents who have access to material wealth… Must be a lucky roll of cosmic dice, wouldn’t one think? Surely, there can be NO correlation between poverty and lower test scores… it must be the teacher’s fault, ……. right?